Pom Pom Fever

There was a lot of excitement for Jim Harbaugh‘s first season as the 49er HC, but it was muted somewhat by the shortened Training Camp, due to the long battle over the new CBA, which lowered hopes for what he could reasonably accomplish in his first year. When the team went all the way to overtime in the NFC Title game, it was a surprise, more than an expectation.

But it signaled the return of the franchise to its rightful place as a power in the NFL.

In 2012 and 2013, there was excitement. A belief we had the team to win a Super Bowl. We got there and lost in 2012, and came up inches short in 2013, a year ultimately crippled by the loss of Michael Crabtree in the offseason, which exposed a wide receiver group that was flat out terrible. The failure of 2012 first round pick AJ Jenkins was a critical liability without Crabtree.

The excitement is still here in 2014 and maybe more so than ever. Defense may win championships, but fun football ogling is at his funnest when your offense is dynamic and prolific. The team has the WRs to do that this year, the best cast of receivers this century.

Trent Baalke has been good drafting the beef guys and LBs, but not so good drafting the playmakers. In addition to Jenkins, there were Kyle Williams, Ronald Johnson, and LaMichael James. Quinton Patton may yet be a good WR, but he spent most of 2013 on the injured list.

Baalke has preferred Free Agency for his skill guys. A washed up Brayon Edwards, a half-hearted Randy Moss, an oft-injured Mario Manningham, and a host of camp fodder NFL marginals with nary a nugget in the bunch. Not a good track record in FA or drafting.

Maybe he’s learning. Last year, he brought in Anquan Boldin and that move saved the season from disaster. This year, it’s Stevie Johnson and Brandon Lloyd — moves that look good now. We’ll see how they look at season’s end.

But heading into Training Camp, this looks like the most dangerous team of the Harbaugh era.

If Roman pulls his head out of his butt and gets a clue about spacing I have only about a month and a half to carp about him. I’m hoping he shuts me up and turns my rants into raves! I’ll believe it when I see it.

To give Roman so much crap is a little silly when his W/L record, being best in the league for his three years, ipso facto, knocks down the argument before it’s even stated.

To constantly harp on something that is working well enough to achieve the record of the past three years might indicate the harper is the one who has it wrong. To suggest that the coach doesn’t understand splits and spacing is literally nonsense.

I honestly do not believe we’ll keep both Stevie Johnson *and* Lloyd, unless one of the starters goes down in TC. You’re not going to get four veteran WRs on the field in this offense. Keep three, counting Crabs and Boldin as your starters unless something happens to one of them. Keep Ellington and Patton as your future. *Maybe* keep Osgood if no better ST options turn up in camp.

If Roman is such a hot commodity NoFear, why isn’t anyone banging down their door to hire him? McCarthy served as Nolan’s (!) OC, and was promptly hired by GB after his crap-ass OC season here. Even his stint as the Saints OC netted the stupendous record of 32-32. Roman runs a very bland passing offense to go with his big bad run game. But what is the difference between McCarthy and Roman? Hmmmmmmmm.

No one in the league, short of Seattle, is running that type of offense. Ergo no one really gives a shit about him. He and Harbaugh fit together great, but until they do something about this predictable offense, I fear we will fall short again.

Alex Smith is now officially a game manager. I’ve said it for all those years you were saying he was great. He does get by when not asked to do much and has learned to not cost his team the game.

You stopped saying Alex was elite only when we got Kaepernick. And you didn’t want to start Kaepernick until after we did. Just playing the odds would make you wrong about Roman, too. If it weren’t already so obvious, that is.

A good OC will call the plays that his players are capable of running with a bit of success despite what the fans are clamoring to see.

You’ve been complaining about formations so long it probably pains you to be proven wrong by such a W/L record but you should be getting used to it.

I remember when you said you were going to keep track of how many spread plays we used when we won and try to make the connection between spread formations and winning. I guess just to prove you could put the cart before the horse you found we won despite using so many of the formations you thought were the cause of losing and still said it was the formations that were wrong.

A lot of coaches like to keep the ball on offense and play defense. A lot of times it depends on the capabilities of their players, like a mediocre or new QB for example. It’s a winning formula as much as the Tom Brady/Peyton Manning ball in the air is for some teams. I think even you’d have to admit Harbaugh/Roman have made it work pretty well here. And even though some folks would never admit to being wrong, a lot of teams will be copying the strategy this year.

As far as beating down Roman’s door for a HC position, first of all, he’s still coaching when the bottom dwellers are hiring. And not every good OC is a fit for every open HC position. Roman will get his shot soon enough.

Are you creating a straw man to debate? I have never said Alex is elite. I did say he had the potential but it was too hard to tell when you play QB for bad coaches like Nolan and Singletary. I even said many times that I can’t tell if Alex is a good QB or not until he gets a good coach. Half way through his first year with Harbaugh I said he was a good QB. Not great, not elite, but good.

Before the season started two years ago I predicted that Alex would be the starting QB and would get hurt and lose his job. Go look it up. That is exactly what happened. I always knew Kap would eventually be the starter the day we drafted him. I figured it to take until the third year until I saw how well he played in the pre-season of his 2nd year. With the bad play calling we constantly utilize our QBs get hammered in the pocket. I figured Alex would get hurt and Kap would take over. If we don’t get smarter about our passing game Kap will get hurt soon too. We go max protect which limits the targets to throw to and allows the defense to load the box. Most plays are 5 and 7 step drops. With the box already loaded the blitzes are easy to disguise and the QB gets pummeled. That is the Greg Roman passing game. He’s almost as bad as Hosler and Raye. QBs beware. People who don’t know good play calling when they see it blame the QB but often it is the play calling that creates offensive dysfunction. Roman has been exactly that play caller so fare. Thank goodness we have such a good defense and Kap and Alex have kept the turnover ratios good.

You equated Roman’s abilities to a won/loss record. I guess for you that only works for players and coaches you like. Maybe they should have a new stat in the NFL, it would measure how good you are by how much NoFear likes that player! If he ever said a bad thing about Nolan he can never be a good statistical NoFear player, even if he is a QB with the best won/lost record in the NFL the last 3 years. They could even get your statistical unbiased (LOL) opinion for Madden Football!

The 49ers get bailed out from bad play calling with first, a good game manager QB replaced by a good big play QB, a great offensive line and a really good, bordering on great defense. IMO, the defense will not be as dynamic this year and Roman will need to show Harbaugh that his plays do not need to be changed so often on the way into the game this year as they did the 2nd half of last year. I thought Roman was improving last year until we all read that it was Harbaugh taking more control of the play calling. The one area we need to improve the most is Roman’s play calling. They have already talked about improving the offense, even Roman has talked about rebuilding the offense. I guess you haven’t noticed that even the play callers themselves are noticing and publically talking about it. You need to pay more attention and smell the coffee.

One more thing, I have no idea what you are talking about when you say I was going to keep track of how many spread formations we run. I would not take the time to track something like that. I do notice but I don’t track it.

I did like what Mike Martz was doing because it was an improvement but he passed too much and didn’t use the TE enough. Maybe one day we’ll get it right. Let’s see what rebuilding the offense means. Obviously even the coaches themselves know our play calling is not acceptable. I think you and Bullit are the only ones who haven’t noticed. I might only have about a month and a half to carp about the play calling, I sure hope so.

Winder- I don’t think any QB could have had success with the dysfunctional play calling under Hostler and Raye. Hostler didn’t even have hot routes as part of the offense. McCarthy had an historically bad O-line so he had a bad hand to play and Turner and Martz did decent work. Alex never got to play for Martz because of the bad shoulder. I think we would be just fine with Alex as our QB, it’s just that I like Kap better.

No straw man needed. You said it, not me. I’m not going to look anything up. I know you don’t forget shit that you want to remember. Can’t blame you for “forgetting” that one. Not to mention bashing everyone with a single comment of criticism for your boy. Did you forget that, too? Or the names you and your Alex-cliqueie-boys made up for them?

How is it you could tell Kaep was so good but yet you couldn’t separate Alex from your notion of bad coaching holding him back?

Everybody else on the planet can see a QB play a couple dozen games and have a good feel for his skill and abilities. You look at a highlight reel and make your “expert assessment” of every other player.

Of course our offense can improve. Nobody disputes that. But for all you know, if Roman called the plays you like we could have lost more than we won because of it. Whatever you think of what Roman decided to go with, it won games and a lot of them. What’s so hard about accepting there’s more ways to win than what Berger wants to see? Maybe the pros have a bit of a clue about what it takes. That’s sarcasm, by the way.

NoFear: Kap is also being held back by this OC. Let us see what the “rebuild” is. It is hard to now how good Kap can be with Roman calling plays. This offense has been modeled after big bad mid-western college football of the ’80s with a bastardized pistol twist. The model that wants to be conservative on offense and run over people in a box but when behind in the 4th quarter throws interceptions. Just like most Rose Bowls of the 80’s.

Keep making things up that I said, it allows you to act like you have a legitimate debate and keeps the conversation moving. I never called Alex elite but I did make fun of the haters for bailing on this site after he started to win. They loved being the “experts who knew” he could never win but when obviously wrong did not want the backlash, so they bailed. I still think that is entertaining. All along I was correct, it was the bad coaching costing us wins, not Alex Smith. Skeebers and Bullit had it pegged up front, I was more timid and wouldn’t say until we actually had a decent coach. Now if Harbaugh would just hire a decent OC! He has proven to be a really good QB coach but unfortunately his roots in big bad mid-western college football of the ’80s is having a negative influence on his play calling. We are experiencing too many Big-10 Rose Bowl moments of the ’80’s in the big games at the end of the year.

A couple of Alex bashers never hid and never denied their stance, Del, RT and Spitty come to mind. Spitty didn’t hide, he just keeps getting banned everywhere. Winder waffled on the negative side but never hid, I waffled on the positive side and blasted the ones who incorrectly called me an Alex supporter and then acted pompously about it. I was just calling it as I saw it, we had a QB with some potential but we never got to see it with the bad coaching. So how were we to know what we had since potential is not actual. Actual didn’t come until a coach with a clue arrived. We just had to wait it out for a decent coach but fans need to blame anything that moves to keep themselves in the game and the QB is the easiest target. And that is why blogs exist, to express one’s fandom feelings. It’s all good!

I was more a coach basher than an Alex supporter. But that translated as an Alex supporter to the haters, especially NoFear who loves Mike Nolan. Once Alex had Harbaugh I declared him to be a good QB half way through the first season they spent together. If people want to make fun of me for sitting on the fence then that is OK because that is what happened. I just wasn’t going to bash a QB that had a bad offense to run.

These days our offense makes sense it’s just that it is antiquated. The Bill Parcells NY Giants showed everybody how to beat those offenses of the 70’s and 80’s and Jeff Fisher reinforced it in Harbaugh’s 2nd year, but more than that, rule changes have required a coach to evolve even more. Some old fashioned coaches just don’t evolve. I hope the “rebuild” of our offense is going to show Harbaugh’s epiphany. You can’t win championships trying to run Bo Schembechlers offense.

Here’s my 2 cents
Let’s review the NFC Championship Game and explode this myth being put forth that Kap was forced to pass the ball in the 4th quarter by Roman.
Score was 20-17 in the 4th Quarter with Seahags leading at the 10:17 mark when Kap was sacked and fumbled on a 3rd and 6 at the SF 29 yd line. On the previous play it was 3rd and 1 but Niners were called for delay of game. That in itself was a huge game changing penalty.
7:44 left in the game Score still 20-17 1st & 10 at the SF 26 Kap throws a pass directly to Chancellor. Everyone can agree a bad throw and a bonehead devastating turnover. Seattle is held to a FG. Score is now Seahags leading 23-17.
1st and 10 at the Sea 18 30 seconds left in the game and Niners have 2 Timeouts. You know the rest…

Sorry I just can’t buy the myth that the 3 turnovers were the end result of the Niners having to throw the ball and passing was their only option. To me that’s just stretching to find an excuse for 3 bad plays. Down by 3 with over 10 mins to go does not mean you are in a pass or die mode. The game was still very much in question and everything was on the table for your offense.
Again I’m just telling it like it is and all the good that Kap did in the first 3 quarters was erased by what he did and didn’t do in the 4th quarter. Unfortunately Kap saved his worst for last.
Sidenote: on the last drive the Niners moved 60 yards in 3 mins using the 2 min warning and 1 timeout. Nobody seems to complain about the playcalling that accomplished that.
This is an objective opinion before you start calling me a Kap hater. If you disagree you have to do better than scrutinize every minute detail blaming everyone but Kap for the tunovers.

There are some who believe that just because somebody has spent their whole life playing and coaching in a sport they are experts in coaching. Even if that were true it doesn’t make for a winning record. For every winner there is a loser. Some win and some lose. Knowing how to coach a player does make one a good strategist. A play caller has to be a good strategist.

Being a coach and a strategist are two different things. Roman is not a strategist, he is coaching what he has been taught and that is old principals and techniques. To make a comparison to his offense, if he were a car company CEO he would still be selling cars with normally aspirated carburetors. Is he a good coach, I don’t know. Is he a good strategist, no. Us fans have 20/20 hindsight and some of us can see that. IMO, Harbaugh needs to step up and get him up to speed, maybe that is what rebuilding the offense is about. Or better yet, do like the car company CEOs did, replace him with a car that doesn’t choke at high altitude like the old fashioned carburetors did.

We need a strategist who understands the newer rules and how it has changed the game. Running the ball is still important but how the ball is run is not the same as it was in the 80’s. Not if you want to win a championship. It’s not that it is impossible but just like old fashioned carburetors make it difficult to get to a high peak, old fashioned strategies that have been studied and defensed for years do the same thing. It makes it more difficult than necessary to get to the top.

One of the reasons Bill Walsh won as much as he did was he was an innovator, or strategist supreme. He always tried to stay a step ahead of the rest. I believe if he were still coaching he would still be innovating instead of running the same offense of the 80’s. Walsh was not just a great coach, he was also a great strategist. I sense Harbaugh is moving toward being more of a strategist. We shall soon see.

Shit, we’re 28th in passing yards. ‘Held back’ is an understatement. Yeah, we run well. But it’s a false stat when your QB gets 60-80 yards on un-designed scrambles. All I’ve ever wanted to see is the Niners use more 3-4 WR formations. FRom the Hostlker days til now. Like I said on my blog, the only time we went WR happy was under Mad Mike, and he went too far the other way. And I still think that if Sing had kept Martz, they could have worked out a balance that Nolan couldn’t man up to provide.

Sorry it took some a while to understand that our shotgun formations under Smith didn’t mean we were opening things up.

Will things change with a full stable of WRs? All I can say is let’s hope so. The running offense has proven to fail against stronger defensive teams. And when that happens, we get predictable. It’s all well and good to beat the Tennessees and Houstons of the league, but they’ve fallen short 3 years in a row. There’s no denying that. The play calling has a lot to do with that. Especially in the red zone.

Bullit- Kap could have and should have done much better in the 4th quarter. It cost us. But we would not have been in the game in the first place without his 100 yards rushing. I would guess if you look at the two minute drill you talk about you would see much better spacing in the offense during that stretch? It allows the offensive line to perform much better in today’s game.

Why are you so cruel and unforgiving to Tony Romo then?
He puts up crazy fantasy numbers in the first 55 mins of games.
Close games and crunch time he has a tendency to turn the ball over. If it weren’t for Romo Dallas wouldn’t be in theses games.
That’s why I have to judge players on performance for the entire game.
You know this better than anyone. Most QBs are judged on how they perform at the end of the game, the finish and the score to take the lead. That seperates the elite QBs from the mediocre.
I hope that Kap takes that step this year because it didn’t happen last season perhaps partly due to WR talent. He has the talent this year to take that step and spread the ball around.

Bullit- No one forced us to be pass happy 3 points down. That was Roman’s decision. Probably because he couldn’t design a decent running play without the QB doing the running. We did gain fairly well with Kap scrambling on passing plays, maybe that is what Roman was hoping for, to be bailed out. He should have just designed better plays.

Point being, Romo hasn’t learned his lesson. And Dallas has a shitty defense that likely got worse.

The point for me in all of this, is that the Niners should be looking to exploit weaknesses in given teams instead of playing our offense the same way all the time. We usually come out conservative and try to keep the score down.

How many games have we grinded out early 3-0 6-0 leads only to see leads evaporate in one big play by the opposition? Over and over it happens.

We have too many weapons to be playing close to the vest. We let teams adjust to our offense too often, instead of pushing the issue.

Kap did well to get us into that game with more road play-off victories than any other QB in 49er history, including some clutch 4th quarter plays, even including the AZ game at the end of the regular season. He can’t be perfect every game. I’m fairly sure rebuilding the offense is more about Roman’s play calling than Kap’s 4th quarters.

Kap is a much better game manager than Romo. Romo has one play-off victory to Kap’s 4 in two seasons. Kap can take over a game running the ball. I don’t see your comparison except that neither has won a SB. Also, Romo has a good play caller and Kap does not. I would love to have Bill Callahan calling our plays. He is run oriented but designs good pass plays. He might be available soon. Dallas has Linehan calling the plays this year and he loves to pass, pass, pass. Callahan might just say good-bye or get jettisoned.

Berger – I for one am glad that you post your opinions and that goes for Nofear, chuck, and bullit too. I don’t think I would’ve know about half the players in the draft if it wasn’t for NJ. Also, in my opinion we are all coaching geniuses since I can still call quite a few Niner plays before they’re executed. The one thing I do know is that football games are won in the trenches, always have been and always will be.

Winder- Thanks. I appreciate everybody’s opinions too. If we all agreed this place would probably turn into a music video site! LOL! And to have somebody here who actually thinks Mike Nolan was a good head coach, awesome. You just have to love it!

Well, Alex Who? will have his work cut out for him this year. I project the Chiefs at 1-3 against the NFC West, 3-3 against the AFC West, plus a loss to the Pats (the Steelers might be a challenge, as well). That’s 9-7, which may still be enough for the playoffs in Undead Al’s Conference.

Regardless of your feelings about Alex Smith you can conclude that he was a good 49er who helped mentor Kap which helped in getting Kap onto the field quicker at Alex’s expense. In the end Alex was a good soldier who was the ultimate team player.
When the Niners made the trade with KC they couldn’t imagine
what those 2 draft picks they got back would yield.
Baalke manipulated those 2 picks into: defensive lineman Tank Carradine, outside linebacker Corey Lemonier, inside linebacker Chris Borland, running back Carlos Hyde and wide receiver Stevie Johnson.
Not a bad return for Smith who was booed off the field within recent memory and was a free agent QB looking for a home.

Training Camp and significant football activity is finally here.
I still remember when the Niners had training camp at Goleta, then Rocklin and then UOP before they decided to keep it in house at Santa Clara.
One reason they went away for training camp was their facility in Redwood City was only one field which would be difficult for 90 players.

If Alex Boone wants to remain a Niner he should show up and report today. Holding out is just a ticket out of SF.
If Alex Boone did show up it would be a nice surprise and you know something will be worked out in the next month or so if possible.

My step-father worked in the area, and he got me a signed ball from the whole 1972 team (stupidly I used it to play football and trashed it. Hey, I was 11). We also went there a few times and met a bunch of the players.

In looking at the above timeline posted by Bullit, my guess is Alex Boone holds out until 8-5. I would also guess that once he is in camp the 49ers would be willing to negotiate something with him. Whether they come to an agreement is another story.

I just saw a video with Maiocco saying that if it looks like Kap is a one read QB it is because sometimes he has only one read. Moments later the interviewer Jim Kozimor called the Harbaugh offense the Bo Schembechler offense. I wonder where I’ve heard that before! Too funny!

Seahags are going to raise $250K to build a statue because they have never won anything and are scared that, that was it.
Not only will there be Dickie Sherman but the plan is to have
Michael Crabtree immprtalized in bronze.
Just to be a fly in the ointment Crabtree should absolutely refuse permission to use his likeness for this and so should the Niners.

I’d rather Crabs let himself be included in the statue, and the Niners acquire 5 more Lombardis so crows’ fans can always look up at that statue and remember their 15 minutes of fame. Heck, even the Jets won 1.

Aldon Smith has been summoned to New York for another Judgement Day. With his Monday work crew obligation and having to fly into LAX so he can be reprimanded by the judge Aldon is again waiting in the long TSA security lines which is good therapy.

Wow. Got to love Goodie Goodell. He gives Ray Rice a 2-game suspension for beating the shit out of his future, and soon-to-be-dead, wife and dragging her around by the hair. Get caught smoking a semi-legal substance and get a 4 game suspension.

Good to see where his priorities lie. Aldon should have ran over a person instead of hitting a tree while drunk. He’d have gotten a lighter sentence.

Except the NFL isn’t the legal/justice system and the NFL policy on mj is part of the CBA. That’s a players union negotiated deal.

Smith got off easier than Rice in the courts. Useless anger management vs eleven days (Mondays if that’s convenient for you, sir. Call me if not, we’ll work something out.) of signing autographs for the Sheriff’s Deputies. Neither guy got any punishment to speak of so why should the NFL take the blame for a joke of a justice system’s failure on actual crimes.